Studies on Contacts is a commissioned body of work, created in 2020 for an exhibition in Paris, in which Gita Cooper-van Ingen responds to a series of workbooks by fashion photographer Regina Relang from the 1950s and 60s, currently held in Munich’s Stadtarchiv. Cooper-van Ingen’s work, which spans silkscreen and photographic prints, explores the idea of reproduction itself, utilising the female nude figure as well as the newspaper, to contrast Relang’s clothed, fashioned models.
The work re-examines the historical tensions posed by the decorated, contoured female figure whose face remains hidden behind the newspaper’s open spread. Employing different reproductive printing techniques, Cooper-van Ingen translates and transposes Relang’s motif as well as aesthetic, formal aspects of her contact sheets.
The work re-examines the historical tensions posed by the decorated, contoured female figure whose face remains hidden behind the newspaper’s open spread. Employing different reproductive printing techniques, Cooper-van Ingen translates and transposes Relang’s motif as well as aesthetic, formal aspects of her contact sheets.
